Ripped off on eBay Mobile phone?
Bought a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note 2 from eBay seller thegeex. All was well however after 5 months my phone's IMEI was blacklisted. thegeex sold me a hot phone and there was nothing I could do about it because it had been 5 months since buying it. This means you never know if your used mobile phone is safe. At any time it could get reported stolen or lost and the unsuspecting buyer is the one who gets screwed. Do I have any recourse whatsoever?
Should we buy unboxed phones?
If you are to come across an “Open Box” mobile phone today, there’s a high chance that someone bought that mobile online from Flipkart/Amazon/Snapdeal and returned it within the 7 - 15 day return period.Now when these products are returned back to the seller, he/she cannot put it back into the system since the “Seal” is broken & the box is now “open”. So instead of selling it offline - wherein a small retail shop owner will coax you by saying that he just opened this seal to get the mobile checked, it goes through an elaborate process.The returned goods generally go through a Quality Check process at the beginning of their return journey when they are picked up from the customer - the delivery guy checks all the contents of the box & checks it for physical damages (if any) - post that, they generally go through another level of checks before going into liquidation. In the liquidation there are businesses that generally buy the Open Box inventory in bulk. These sellers then do another level of checks at their end and then sell them on eBay / Olx / Quikr or Snapdeal/Shopclues where there is a separate category for Open Box & Refurbished phones & accessories.One key thing to note is that whichever channel you may buy these from, please reach out to the seller to check the kind of warranty involved - Open Box phones through a trusted channel generally come with 6 months of Brand warranty which makes it great.Advantages of buying an Open Box phone are:Better price - biggest reasonAvailability - Phones like the Redmi Note 4 are readily available as Open Box whereas you have to wait (& pray) for the flash sale to happen, and for the phone to magically fall in your cartPIN Code/Area Serviceability: It may so be the case that the website providing the new phone does not cover your PIN code (Flipkart does not deliver to certain PIN codes in UP) and another website selling an Open Box one does deliver to your address and with your preferred payment modeHope this helps
Should I buy a used Kindle Fire or a new one?
I have purchased 4 Kindle Fires. So, here’s my take (eBay examples):1) Condition: Look carefully at the photos. Ask about any anomaly. Ask for more detailed photos (if available). A lot say, just a ….. Skip all of those. It should look to be in Mint Condition.2) Battery: The older the unit, the more the battery will become an issue. The Batteries don’t last forever.3) Memory & Radios! Many smaller units, 7″ have limited memory (8GB), while the larger units seem to average 32GB, or some even have 64GB. Then, it’s the Cell radio. If you get one with a Cell radio, you can sign up for a monthly Cell Plan (About $25/mo. or so, before taxes).So, that’s it. My three used units? All in Mint Condition. One Loaded Fire HD 8.9. One Fire HD 7 (8GB). One later Fire 7″ as a Christmas Present.Note: Some may come with a case. Older unit cases from Amazon may be deeply discounted. Mine were!If you want a guarantee from Amazon, get the new one. Otherwise, if you’re willing to research the used market & gamble a bit, go for it!PS. ****NEVER*** buy a physically damaged unit, or one with a bad ESN/IMEI!Enjoy!
Unlocking a Galaxy s4 from at&t?
Hi, so my sister recently found a brand new galaxy s4 and gave it to me but I'm not an at&t plan, I have Tmobile and there's definitely no way I'm breaking my contract and switching over just for the phone. I am willing to pay the rest of my one phone on Tmobile and use the galaxy. I obviously want to unlock it but Tmobile wont do that for me since they dont have the permission to and at&t wont don't it for me because the phone is on a lost list and they suggested for me to return the phone, pretty much accusing me of thievery. I'm suspecting the phone's IMEI is blocked because it was reported, so can I still unlock the phone if I am inserting a Tmobile SIM Card after unlocking it? I want to independently unlock the phone myself and just get a sim cutter for the sim card to make it micro but I'm not sure what to do because the IMEI is more than likely blocked off its at&t carrier. I just need to know if it will still be compatible with the Tmobile SIM card if I get it unlocked properly. Also: If I can still unlock it, do you guys have any advice for me? I want to unlock it myself because I don't trust shady services or people but I'm not sure what to do yet.
I found an Instagram page that is selling the iPhone 6 for $300 and is accepting PayPal. Is this a scam? How can I get scammed in this situation?
Yes, of course it's a scam. It's a common one, in fact.There are several ways this scam works:The seller sends you an empty box. You complain to PayPal. The seller produces evidence that the box was shipped to you and you received it. PayPal asks you to prove the box was empty. While you're faffing around trying to do that, the seller disappears, taking your money and the money of all the other gullible suckers who fell for the scam with you. See ya!The seller delivers an iPhone. It's stolen. You try to use it. You can't, because it's been locked when the previous owner reported it stolen. Congratulations! You bought an expensive paperweight. You can try to complain, if you like. Good luck with that. You're potentially opening yourself up to charges of receiving stolen property. A prosecutor can make a good case that someone who knowingly buys a $600 product for $300 should reasonably know something is hinkey with that.You get a phone. It works. It has an Apple logo on it. But it's not an iPhone. It's running an old and likely insecure version of Android skinned to look like iOS. Surprise! You've been sold a phony Chinese counterfeit. You can file a complaint if you want. By the time you do, whatever front man for the Chinese firm is long gone and the money is out of the country. You've been fleeced.
Royal Mail continuously keep losing my parcels - is this suspicious or just bad luck?
In the last year, i've had 4 online orders not arrive, 2 very important letters not be delivered and 6 parcels that i've sent to other people being reported as undelivered. Do you think that's just bad luck or is my address 'blacklisted' (if that's even possible?) Royal Mail are generally shoddy around my area, I normally only get a delivery once every 2 days and occasionally only 1 delivery a week. I live in the suburbs of a city so not exactly 'out there' or anything like that. In fact, the main sorting office for the whole county is 15 mins drive down the road! I just think a lot of post has gone missing for me than what's normal, and i'm starting to get worried. The 6 parcels that i've sent to other people were through selling on ebay, so there is always a chance they were lying, but i've claimed compensation on 3 of these, 1 was sorted out by RM straight away and the others (for items of £30+) were refused compensation by royal mail until I managed to prove, with help from the ebay buyers, that it wasn't in fact delivered. I've just had note from another ebay buyer that, again, a parcel hasn't been delievered. I keep getting the feeling that with all these claims i'm putting in, RM are going to think i'm conning them when the truth is, they are just crap. I've been in the house nearly 2 years, and every now and then we do get some mail for all kinds of different names - i've seen continual letters for at least 5 different surnames now. Could it be that the house it blacklisted from previous occupants? What do you think? What should I do? Thanks, and sorry this was long!
Which is the best iPhone in 2019?
It depends on what you’re looking for:Ease of use? Any iPhone.Showing off how much you can afford? (You’d be surprised at the number of business executives who have no knowledge of cellphones buy a new top of the line iPhone every year, just to show that they can afford to.) The most expensive one.If you’re looking for the best camera for shots in all lighting, including at night, forget iPhones and buy a Pixel 3 (or even a Pixel 2 and install Camera 3 in it). It can almost (but not quite) take pictures in total darkness. (I have good eyes, but I’ve taken pictures of things I couldn’t see - like my foundation plantings when I took a test shot of the car in my driveway at night with no lights.)It all depends on the reason. Just buying an iPhone because you want an iPhone is like buying a Chevy just because you want a Chevy. (Even if Ford has exactly the same type of vehicle, with exactly the same options, for a little more than half the price.) An iPhoine X with 256GB of storage (64GB is getting a bit squeezed already) is about $1,150. NEVER buy a cellphone from eBay unless you know what you’re doing. Even if it’s from a “company” (my neighbor has a company that sells women’s clothing on eBay - she just registered an account in the company name and she “was a company”). Many, many “companies on eBay buy refurbished phones. While there’s nothing wrong with a properly refurbished phone, many of them are “refurbished” by cleaning them up and putting them in new packaging. Buying from individuals - the phone could be blacklisted. That means that it was stolen, and it can’t get “unblacklisted” by anyone but the person who owns the account it was blacklisted on. So you pay for the phone, you have it - but you can never use it for anything. If you’re buying a used phone, always make the exchange at a store of the carrier it’s currently on, and have the store check that it’s not blacklisted - then have them list it on your account, so you’re the listed owner of the phone. (Many store managers will take the phone from the seller and the money from the buyer, and hand them back the other way - seller gets the money, buyer gets the phone. That way you’re both protected.)